Democracy Is Still A Worthy Endeavor

Weekly Standard: Al Qaeda And Bad Policies Are To Blame For Iraq Troubles, Not New Government

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by Peter Wehner.

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Two and a half years ago — in the wake of elections in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, and especially Iraq (as well as the fall of Lebanon's pro-Syrian government) — we were witness to what became known as the "Arab Spring." Commentators were declaring President Bush's "freedom agenda" a success.

In February 2005, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman declared the Iraqi election a "tipping point" in Middle East history. "[W]e're seeing the equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall there," Friedman said. Such unlikely voices as NPR's Daniel Schorr, the Washington Post's Jefferson Morley, and columnists in Der Spiegel and the Guardian were saying, explicitly or in essence, "Bush was right."

Today the situation looks very different. The Freedom Agenda is being criticized from almost every quarter — and the main reason is Iraq. It is said that our efforts to plant democracy there have been a colossal failure. Iraq is fractured and fragmenting, violent, and politically paralyzed. Whereas exporting democracy was once considered a worthy endeavor, many people now fear it will usher in chaos. A bumper sticker puts it this way: Be Nice to Us, or We Will Bring Democracy to You.

But Iraq's problems are not the product of democracy, and they shouldn't be laid at the feet of liberty. In fact, the causes of Iraq's difficulties lie elsewhere.

For one thing, the Phase IV (post-major combat operations) plan was deeply flawed. After 35 years of Saddam Hussein's demonic rule, Iraq was a traumatized society. In many respects, it was non-functioning. The Bush administration (in which I served) did not sufficiently anticipate this. In the aftermath of the fall of Saddam, basic order was not provided. For too long there was an aversion among some in the administration to nation-building, even though we had taken on one of the great nation-building projects in history. We tried to hand over responsibility to the Iraqi Security Forces before they were ready. There was a reluctance to recognize the growing insurgency — and once we did, it took too long to put in place the right counterinsurgency strategy.

Fortunately President Bush, facing enormous political pressure to wind down the war, refused to give up on Iraq. Eventually he made wholesale changes, including embracing the idea of "the surge" earlier this year. Under the extraordinary leadership of General David Petraeus and his team, the right strategy has now been put in place. This year is turning out to be a much better year than 2006. Almost every meaningful security metric is improving. The task in Iraq remains difficult — but we now have a decent shot at a decent outcome.

Beyond that, al Qaeda made Iraq the central front in its jihadist campaign. Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Abu Musab al Zarqawi — all non-Iraqis — pursued their strategy with cunning savagery; they successfully turned sectarian tensions into widespread sectarian violence. The presence of brutal foreign terrorists in that tortured land made a difficult situation far more challenging.

And then there is Syria — and especially Iran, which is training and financing militias, exporting weapons to Iraq, and inciting violence. Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, and it is earning that appellation every day in Iraq.

What happened, then, was that Iraqis emerge from decades of tyranny deeply scarred, only to be met by widespread disorder, foreign terrorists, and hostile neighbors. These factors, and not democracy, are what has made the Iraq undertaking so difficult. Tony Blair has rightly argued that if these elements had not been introduced, we would be facing a far more manageable situation.

Our efforts in Iraq did not catalyze, as George Will predicted in 2002, "a ripple effect, a happy domino effect, if you will, of democracy knocking over these medieval tyrannies." (Will added this, for good measure: "Condoleezza Rice is quite right. She says there is an enormous condescension in saying that somehow the Arab world is just not up to democracy.")

Nor did elections drain the insurgency of its hatred and convince militias to exchange bullets for ballots. But because liberty hasn't solved all of Iraq's problems doesn't mean it is responsible for them. The most stirring moments we have seen in Iraq remain the elections, which produced a constitution and a legitimate (if quite weak and imperfect) government. Elections, as well as the painstaking work of building democratic institutions, remain the pathway to progress. Most Iraqis want their freedom, and many of them are fighting valiantly to preserve it.

In the aftermath of the heady days of 2005, James Q. Wilson cautioned that it takes a long time to convert a nation accustomed to authoritarian rule — and Saddam Hussein's regime was much worse than that — into one that embraces democratic rule. A rapid transition, he wrote, has never been possible, and ought not be expected. But that doesn't mean we should halt our effort to encourage the spread of liberty. Wilson pointed out that "no nation will aggressively dominate a region if its citizens can control its foreign policy through free and democratic elections."

Nations once thought to be incapable of self-government have shown they are more than capable, even as their ways do not mirror our own. Indonesia is different from India, which in turn is different from South Korea, which in turn is different from Senegal, which in turn is different from Canada. Because Iraq has proven to be a very complicated and difficult undertaking, this does not subvert the democratic idea, any more than Germany's election in 1933, which brought Hitler to power, did. Bear in mind, too, that American democracy lived with slavery for almost a century, and it required a bloody civil war to end it. Moreover, the alternatives to freedom — whether authoritarianism, despotism, or anti-modernism — are hardly the cornerstones on which to build tranquility and prosperity. The Arab Middle East was a cauldron of violence and instability long before George W. Bush took office.

The United States helped midwife freedom in a land of tears. It was a noble undertaking, among the most noble in our history, and it is worth seeing through to completion.

[walt1944-2009]

The Great Emperor Bush II disagrees with the article in the Weekly Standard stating that his "Freedom Agenda" policy has failed. He claims that the policies he has put in place in Afghanistan and Iraq are suceeding, and that any failures are due to the failure of others and/or the schemes of the evil, cowardly Democrats.

Of course, there has always been some doubt about what the "Freedom Agenda" really was. Was it meant to put democracy (that is, the Emperor''s brand of "democracy") into place or was it meant as a pretext for a USSA "empire" with profit and greed the real agenda!

Whatever the real agenda was/is, it is no secret that people in both countries are secretly wishing that the "old ways" were back and, especially in Iraq, which, to the typical Iragi, has turned into a worse nightmare under the Emperor than it was under Saddam Hussein.

Besides, wasn''t the real purpose of all this to be a war on "terrrrror" and a manhunt to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice? The last we heard, he is stil out there and laughing at the Emperor who now thinks he is not worth thinking about!

Sweet solace to the 3,000+ families of the victims of 9/11 looking for some sort of closure!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!

[ubrew12]

The problem with ''might makes right'' is it never knows when to quit. So you start out arm-wrestling Saddam Hussein to the ground, then its his family that''s the problem, then the Baathists, then ANYONE who ever took a paycheck from the Baathists (like teachers and lawyers), then the Iraqi people themselves. And, in the end, your beating it into EVERYONE''S head that they have to learn to think for themselves and VOTE what they think, in blissful ignorance that the first thing they would vote on is to toss you off the reservation. Weakly Standard will never understand this, they are used to telling other people what to think and calling it democracy.

[jt_lancer]

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

[ubrew12]

Weakly Standard:
"Because we believe in ''might makes right'', we must FORCE Iraq to become a democracy! Fortunately, all this requires is
The removal of Saddam Hussein! No, wait...
The removal of his inner circle! No, wait...
The dismissal of his armed forces! No, wait...
The dismissal of all civil servants! No, wait...
The dismissal of ANYONE associated with the old regime! No, wait...
The dismissal of anyone calling himself a Baathist! No, wait...
The dismissal of anyone calling himself a Sunni! No, wait...
The dismissal of anyone calling himself an Iraqi! There, that should do it!

Gosh, I wonder why the Iraqi''s lack the gumption to become a self-sustaining democratic society? Only one out of every 20 Iraqi''s has died since our invasion, come-on guys!! Why the down faces? Form a democracy, already!! Hmmm, you know what, it must be because Iraqi society was ALREADY toasted by Saddam Hussein BEFORE our invasion. No wait, its because of interference by Iran!! Thats it!! Lets write the president another blank check and invade Iran. THEN, and ONLY THEN, will Iraqi Democracy FLOURISH!!!"

[logicanada]

Seems all the authors of these ''pro war/slam democracy down their throats'', articles writing mostly for weekly standard or NRO want to continue this losing war effort, but I can''t recall them ever reporting the casualty count for the Israeli contingent of the ''coalition of the willing''.
Why is that?
And in light of how the Palestinian people have been ravaged, how dare any Israeli speak of another leaders ''demonic rule''.

[myidoncbs]

"The United States helped midwife freedom in a land of tears. It was a noble undertaking, among the most noble in our history, and it is worth seeing through to completion."

You''ve got to WONDER... did the Iraqi people really ASK us to give them "freedom"? And, you''ve got to ask, how "free" are all those dead Iraqis? How "free" are all those people without electricity, water, food, peace, stability, ..., anything worth calling "civilization"? How "free" were their elections, where all the candidates were UNKNOWN beforehand and they just had to vote for whoever "looked least like a crazed madman" on the ballot picture? Is THAT democracy? Is THAT freedom? Was the invasion of Iraq, the torture and murder of millions, the destruction of their infrastructure and their society, the unleashing of civil war between religious factions, the theft of their oil,... was all that truly a "noble undertaking"? I''d have to say, NOT!

[creeper00]

Oh, this is a hoot! Subhead: "Al Qaeda And Bad Policies Are To Blame For Iraq Troubles, Not New Government"

You idiots! Just who do you think is responsible for those "bad policies" if not the government?

Oh, wait! I know! It''s John Kerry''s fault!

[bluestardad]

MORE OF THE SAME FROM THE NEOCON PRO-ISRAELI RAG THAT HELPED GET AMERICA INTO THIS MESS IN IRAQ...

IRAQ NEVER WAS A THREAT TO AMERICA

THE MIDDLE EAST HAS NOTHING AMERICA NEEDS...

THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FIASCO SHOULD BE BEATEN FROM OUR SHORES AND FORCED TO LIVE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!

[Redoubt]

We%u2026 speaking if the US, don%u2019t make the best example anymore. Freedom is something that even Americans have been struggling to hold on to. While the government goes about proclaiming the virtues of democracy to the world, it is constantly finding reasons to take it away at home.

Recent headlines tell us that we must %u2018expect%u2019 to surrender our privacy to both the government and the corporate, trusting them to behave as they should.
Trust? America was born because we found that governments were notoriously untrustworthy and that a little revolution now and again was entirely healthy!

Newt Gingrich went on record some months ago saying that Americans should be ready to surrender some freedom for a little temporary%u2026 if not entirely questionable safety/security.

American companies like Yahoo and Google are selling out their users in China to that communist regime%u2019s attempt at controlling the flow of information on the internet.

Freedom? How can we sell this to the world when we can%u2019t say for sure that we will ourselves have it much longer? How long will it be before a statement just like this will lead to having your internet disconnected or even to arrest?

If we want to once again be a light unto the world, we%u2019ll need to dust off our national character and get that old fashion lamp of freedom out of the closet first!

%u2026

[feelfree1]

Peter Wehner and the other dead-brains of the Weakly Slander obviously have nothing to offer other than their attempts to blame everyone but themselves for their own treasonous and catastrophic failures.

Many WWII Nazis were tried, sentenced and hanged for persuing a path that is remarkable similar to that which has championed by the angry eunuchs of the Weakly Slander, the NRO, and other fascistic rags.

The world looks forward to the day of reconning for these disgusting fascists.

###

On the Chevron "Human Energy" campaign, are they talking about the Human Energy requred to torture, rape, and murder innocent people in their drive to maximize profits?

"Chevron is one of the largest foreign investors in Burma and is the only remaining major U.S. corporation with a significant presence there. In 2005, Chevron bought the company Unocal weeks after the latter settled a lawsuit accusing it of assisting the Burmese military junta in the torture, murder and rape of villagers during construction of a pipeline."

www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/12/1454252

[brianbwb-2009]

Democracy? You mean there are even semi educated people writing op-eds who still believe that this is about imposing (''bringing") democracy to Iraq? This is nothing more than corruption in it''s purest form, the theft of the US treasury, and the Iraqi mineral resources.

How can anyone be stupid enough to believe that the US wants to impose democracy, supposedly for humanistic considerations, by killing, kidnapping, torturing, raping, dislocating and otherwise harming purposely uncounted numbers of innocent people, based on lies about WMDs, Al Qaeda, and terrorists?

The premise of this article is based on assuming the original lies as now being truth, and in pretending such, the author has thrown away any credibility as anything other than a Goebbels style propagandist.

[imnho]

Wishful thinking does not create a government. Bush tried that and failed. Any policy that is adopted needs to deal with the tribal culture of Iraq. No matter how dear we hold democracy, they don%u2019t share that viewpoint. We must start to exam options that will allow for the earliest withdrawal consistent with Middle East stability.

[rowdytexan2]

Sadly there are people out there who voted for Bush who will read this *** and believe it, because their conscience refuses to acknowledge the MONSTER that they voted into office.

I can but hope the world is looking on and will take steps to protect themselves from the kind of murdering democracy that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are promoting in their quest for Iraqi oil. If they could just but get a contract for Hunt Oil (aka Halliburton) for all mineral rights beneath the middle eastern soil, they''d quit hiring Al Queda and the insurgents to kill the Iraqi people. As long as they are resistant to handing over those rights, they intend to just keep on murdering them.

Right now, they have little clean water, minimal electric power, have to scramble for the food that''s handed out to them, and its not safe for them to try to work, and their kids can''t go to school, their families are being killed every day. They don''t even have a voice in all this wonderful democracy!

They hung Hussein for less than what they''ve already done to the Iraqi people.

Impeach these bustwards NOW! And put them on trial for the dastards they are!

[one_american]

Hey moonbat liberal Bush-hating whiners:

You lose.

And tomorrow you will lose yet again, and it will be more painful for you than today.

Just remember you deserve it.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by One_American

You''re right, we lost

A trillion dollars or more

4,000 soldiers

Our fourth Amendment rights.

The trust of the world.

Now tell us what you Bush loving war worshipers have won for that price.

[trillion1]

Face it the bush nuts can not point to ONE thing the bush administration has done to help America or the world.

[briannorwood]

Peter Wehner, you are a moron! The Iraqi''s are no closer to "democracy" now than they were before neocons like you led us into this quagmire.

What on earth makes you or anyone else think for one minute that the Shiites are even remotely interested in democracy? It is the antithesis of their religion which requires an Islamic theocracy.

Believe me, they are just waiting for us to leave until they resume whacking their Sunni "countrymen".

And the Sunni''s? They will never accept a secondary position in an Iraqi "government". And with the Administration currently arming the Sunni warlards to buy some peace and quiet so they can claim "success" in Iraq, they too are preparing for a bloody civil war. Right under our noses!

These people have no more interest in "democracy" than the man in the moon!

[Razzl]

Democracy is an important principle and we hope to restore it here in America after the Neo-fascists in the current White House leave office. As for the Iraqi government, the Weekly Standard has gotten so practiced at papering over the incompetence of the Bush administration that it''s an effortless stretch to make these preposterous claims on behalf of Al-Maliki...

[runningralph]

The war on terror is a horrible, vicious undertaking. Any war is. War is Hell. It always has been.
If western civilization loses this war, the next struggle will be between Islam and godless China. That struggle could come down to a nuclear stand off such as the Cold War with small wars breaking out every few years until one side is overcome. My money would be on China in that struggle.
If western civilization wins the war on terror, the next struggle will be between between capitalism and communism as it is practiced in China. This struggle would be characterized by economic competition with small wars over natural resources. Again, my money would be on China due to their better ability to organize and concentrate their efforts.

[clestes-2009]

Gee, what a sniveling cowardly piece of sh*t this is!!

Blame anything and everything, but NEVER take responsibility. Iraq is a disaster. It is a predicted disaster and the fault of this disaster is the invasion and inept occupation by the US military which was ALL BAD POLICIES.

Al-quida has nothing to do with it or very little. The parliment is composed of WARRING RELIGIOUS FACTIONS. They have not gotten along in a thousand years and they are not starting now.

this was all predicted and the fact that the neo-con scumbags who planned this disaster are now stuck with it and who now are trying to blame everyone from shrub to the current parliment just goes to show what a bunch of complete LOSERS they are.

[frankson2]

BUSH AND HIS CRONIES BELONG IN ORANGE JUMPSUITS PERIOD!

[nativewoman]

Yes, Democracy is a worthy endeavor or cause.

What a tragedy that Bush has done everything possible to destroy ours.

[j_liberte]

Democracy must come from within. It cannot be forced at gunpoint.

[jerr11]

My problem with the war in Iraq is the way we were conned into it with lies and fake intel.

If we were told the truth, we would not be in Iraq today.

All of us understand the need for wars but we do not want one thrust upon us with lies, especially one that is so blatantly driven by oil and money.

When the main benefactor of the war (Halliburton) is its main cheerleader (********), we have a real problem.

This war is a phoney war, created exclusively to enrich the neocons.

1.9 trillion

4000 dead.

And the only people who''re rejoicing are the folks at halliburton, currently busy building their new HQ in Dubai with the spoils of war and the blood of its victims.

[jerr11]

This war is a phoney war. It came from Halliburton''s business plan.

Look at the changing reasons why we''re there.

First it was WMD.

Then Saddam''s alleged links with al qaeda.

Then it was human rights.

Then it was to prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists.

Then it was to bring democracy to the middle east.

Enough reasons to certify Bush/Cheney Flip flops of the millenium.

So why are we in Iraq?

It''s obvious, to enrich the neocons.

[jerr11]

"Is lying about the reason for a war an impeachable offense?

President George W. Bush has got a very serious problem. Before asking Congress for a joint resolution authorizing the use of U.S. military forces in Iraq, he made a number of unequivocal statements about the reason the United States needed to pursue the most radical actions any nation can undertake -- acts of war against another nation.

Now it is clear that many of his statements appear to be false..."

From:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/06/findlaw.analysis.dean.wmd/



Old link but more relevant than ever.

[cmnsense]

Democracy does not work in a true Islamic culture.

If their Imam says to vote a certain way, the people must vote that way, because their very hope to attain Heaven is tied to following the edicts of their Imam.

If non-Muslims vote counter to the wishes of the local community leaders, they at least to do feel their chance of an after-life is at risk.

Study the Koran and Hadith to truly understand.

[ianlou]

Headline: Democracy Is Still A Worthy Endeavor
Great, let try it here.

[ianlou]

And the only people who''''re rejoicing are the folks at halliburton, currently busy building their new HQ in Dubai with the spoils of war and the blood of its victims.
Posted by jerr11

And headquartered in Dubai, not required to provide any records to the new U.S. leadership concerning their multi billion dollar Rape of the American Treasury during what we will affectionately refer to as the "Bush Junior Years".

[bluestardad]

AMERICA HAS BEEN BUSHWACKED!

IT IS TIME AMERICANS STAND UP AND TAKE BACK THEIR GOVERNMENT ACCORDING TO THE CONSTITUTION!